The Quest for a Dumber Phone

The problem with trying to replace a smartphone with a dumbphone is that most people (young people at least) don't use calling and texting anymore unless forced to. I'd rather have something in between a laptop and a smartphone that is designed to be comfortable for carrying around in a small bag or pocket, but that also has a physical keyboard and is designed to be used productively for programming or writing for example.

As it stands, smartphones are the worst of both worlds though: the form factor of what is essentially a legacy communication device, but none of the human interfaces necessary to make it useful enough to really take advantage of all its computing power (and often also its software cripples the device unless you're running a custom android ROM). What people hate about smartphones isn't that they're constantly plugged in but that they have a device on them all the time that is basically designed to turn the user into the ideal consumer: a passive addict with no attention span. If it was more common to have access to portable hardware that is designed to empower users being creative and productive, maybe it'd be a different story.

But then again, I think most human beings probably want exactly what they're getting with smartphones and are miserable and alienated at the human condition itself of being so susceptible to seeking out low effort short term dopamine feedback loops.

I've intentionally never owned a smartphone. Dumb phones abandoned by my family have been serving me very well for years (strategy: use them until they stop working; get next one; repeat).

My daily work is in forestry, as a brush cutter -- occasionally, GPS would be necessary (unavoidable even). For 95% of the cases, though, I've found a workaround by postponing the map-related tasks (e.g. making sure I understand the borders of a particular forest subcompartment correctly) to the next day and hand-drawing the shape of the subcompartment from an online map to a piece of paper. With the drawing in hand, I can usually accurately confirm the borders by visual observation. Once more, this probably only works for simple blue collars, not for guys that need to do more on-site planning.

Other than that, I occasionally miss a tolerable camera (for digitizing expenditure checks) and QR code reading ability.

All in all, living with old dumb phone is fun. Zero cost if you break it or ruin it in the forest (mud!). I hate my current Nokia, though -- but can't ditch it because it still works, lol. I still miss my Nokia 3310 (the original one), which I used every day for 12(!) years in a row, starting in around 2001 as a high school student and finally letting it go in around 2013 when I was a young father. It was one hell of a phone.

My current favorite oldscool dumb phones are the "senior phones" with huge buttons. This ZTE s202 was really enjoyable to use (belonged to my grandpa), and the no-bs design somehow feels really elegant: https://i.hinnavaatlus.ee/p/1200/99/43/S20220must__6ee8.jpg

Can confirm with Android phones and vr headsets that ADB access can definitely be affected by choice of cable. Talk about face palm, but it is what it us

At least in Germany you get a Smartphone for way less than 100€ and a call + SMS + 4GB data flat for 5€. If that is luxury what is going to the cinema for 20€ (movie and popcorn) for 2 hours?

It's not some burdensome 'quest' though. Just get a Nokia 105[0] which uses the Series 30[1] operating system and has no Internet connectivity. It comes preloaded with a few basic games so you can kill time waiting for things or pacify yourself in awkward social situations.

[0] https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-105

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_30%2B